Perhaps you are one of those drivers who already needed a second car battery to power up the iPod, the cellphone, the DVD player, and the BlackBerry. And then, for Christmas, you got a GPS navigator - that box on the windshield that taunts you with its superior sense of direction and diction. (Some can be programmed to talk like Mr. T or Yoda; others sport a keen British accent.)
Do you even glance at the road anymore?
Though GPS devices have become nearly ubiquitous, their powers of distraction are not drawing much notice. A bill that passed the House last week would ban text-messaging and cradling cellphones while driving. But it excludes GPS-fiddling from the list of road crimes.
Is that a mistake? Charlie Klauer, a Virginia Tech researcher who studies all the dumb things we do in our cars, said that while the devices have not been tested much under regular road conditions, they hold plenty of potential for hazard. In a study released last year, she examined a variety of distractions, but relied on data from 2003 to 2004, when only a small percentage of high-end cars and some rentals had GPS.
The findings are revealing: Looking away from the road for two seconds during a six-second period doubles the risk of a crash.
"It doesn't take very long," Klauer said.
The key to staying safe with a GPS, she said, is placing it as close to the driver's line of vision as possible. Klauer and her team are planning a follow-up study that will more closely investigate the dangers of GPS.
In addition, they are looking at a more frightening on-board hazard than anything you can plug into your cigarette lighter: a teen behind the wheel.
For $250 million, you'd think someone would be driving on the glistening new highway lanes that run through downtown Boston.
But three miles of carpool lanes, built as part of the Big Dig to curb congestion on the way to the airport and the bus terminal, remain remarkably obscure. They lay there like sad road orphans, visited by the occasional bus or taxi, ignored by the rest of us.
When asked about them in October for a front-page article in the Globe, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority promised that a robust public relations effort would usher in a new era of lane-appreciation.
But the advertisements have been muted.
Plans to promote the lanes on digital message boards were thwarted by federal highway officials who want only safety information being broadcast on the boards, said Mac Daniel, Turnpike spokesman. (Daniel once wrote this column; now he will serve as its foil.)
Any other efforts?
"We did send out a letter," Daniel said.
The letter went to people who participate in the Turnpike's ride-sharing program, which gives commuters who have agreed to carpool discounts on tolls. That's right. The Turnpike figures the best way to get more people to carpool is to send letters to . . . people who already carpool.
Unlike many locals, Noah Green, of Brookline, smiles when asked about the T. He obsesses over trains and subways and cherishes any outing that involves a third rail.
Then again, Noah is a first-grader.
By the time he was 5, he had memorized the entire T route map, and more than a few bus and commuter rail lines.
He keeps one of those spider subway route maps hanging on his bedroom wall. He plays with his rubber ducky next to a shower curtain decorated with the New York City Subway map.
"If you ask him how often the 66 bus runs," said his father, Geoffrey Green, "he can tell you."
(That would be every 9 minutes during rush hour.)
Boston's four lines were getting too easy, so Noah set his sights on New York's complicated maze of underground trains. In June 2006, then 5 years old, he persuaded his parents to take him on an expedition from the Upper East Side to the Upper West Side of Manhattan, via Queens and Brooklyn, just so he could transfer eight times.
Sometimes the journey is more important than the destination, especially if you bring juice boxes.
On another day of the trip, the Greens boarded the No. 7 local train at New York Hall of Science in Queens, trying to get back to Manhattan. It was slow-moving and everyone was getting restless.
Noah piped up: "We can switch to the F express at the next station."
Why not trust the kid, figured his parents, a doctor and lawyer. The trip took 10 minutes, with three stops. The original train would have taken 18 minutes, or 11 stops. Noah's advice to the T: Add more express trains.
Can't get there . . .
A section of Interstate 93 south at Exit 20B will close from 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow and Tuesday.
Two to three lanes of I-93 south approaching and through downtown will close from 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow through Friday.
The Storrow Drive onramp to I-93 south will close from 1 to 5 a.m. Wednesday through Friday.
The Haymarket onramp to I-93 south and the Callahan Tunnel will close from 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow and Tuesday.
I-93 south Exit 20B to I-90 west and Albany Street will close from 1 to 5 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
The Essex Street onramp to I-93 south will close from 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow and Tuesday.
Two to three lanes of I-93 north through downtown and Charlestown will close from 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow through Friday.
I-93 north Exit 26 to Storrow Drive will close from 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow and Tuesday.
The underpass from Storrow Drive eastbound to I-93 north and Tobin Bridge will close from 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday through Thursday.
I-93 north Exit 23 to Government Center will close and detour from 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Essex Street onramp to I-93 north will close from 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow through Thursday.
The Interchange 17 exit from I-90 east at Newton Corner will close from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow and Tuesday.
Lanes will close on I-90 east near the Prudential Tunnel from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. tonight through Thursday.
The ramp at I-90 east Exits 24B and 24C to I-93 north and south will close from 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
One lane of I-90 east in the Ted Williams Tunnel will close from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow through Friday.
The Ted Williams Tunnel westbound will close from 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday through Friday. All traffic will be detoured to the Sumner Tunnel.
The onramp from Congress Street to I-93 in South Boston and the I-90 west Exit 24 to I-93 will close from 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Thursday and Friday.
One lane of I-90 west in the Ted Williams Tunnel will close from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow through Friday.
The existing four lanes on Washington Street and Harrison Avenue will be reduced to two lanes. The Harrison Avenue Bridge has been reconfigured to allow two-way traffic. Also, nighttime lane closures will take place on I-90 east near the Prudential tunnel and westbound near I-93.
The Congress Street onramp to I-93 south and I-90 west will close from 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow to Tuesday and from 1 to 5 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
The Sumner Tunnel onramp to Storrow Drive will close from 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow and Tuesday.
The ramp from Route 1A to Logan Airport, Arrivals Level will close from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow through Friday. Motorists destined for the Arrivals Level will be detoured through the airport via the Departures Level ramps.
One lane of the Sumner Tunnel will close from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. tomorrow and Tuesday.
You can complain to us at starts@globe.com. The column can be found at boston.com/starts. Our mailing address is Starts & Stops, P.O. Box 55819, Boston, MA 02205-5819.
Noah Bierman can be reached at nbierman@globe.com.
